'Lawless' interview: Director John Hillcoat, writer Nick Cave - video

The Road helmer John Hillcoat's new 1930s Western Lawless is released in UK cinemas today, and stars Tom Hardy and Shia LaBeouf as brothers struggling to keep their bootlegging business afloat.

Digital Spy caught up with Hillcoat and screenwriter Nick Cave earlier this week to discuss the film's adaptation of Matt Bondurant's novel The Wettest County in the World, and its unflinching portrayal of violence.

"I love those sorts of stories, where you actually see the consequences of what violence does physically to people, as well as psychologically," Hillcoat mused.

"That's very much something that's always attracted me about John's use of violence," Cave added. "It's brutal, it's fast and to the point and I think quite realistic."

The pair, who previously collaborated on 2005 Australian Western The Proposition, went on to discuss the way Lawless explores the blurring between reality and myth.

"There's quite a lot of myth-making in the novel as well," Cave said, "and to me it felt like the writing of a myth.

"In fact, I think the book was actually an investigation of the myth, so I think we just added to it a little bit! I mean, we had to turn it into a movie."